FOKUS KANADA Pia Bungarten 1023 15th Street NW, # 801 Washington, DC 20005 USA Tel.: +1 202 408 5444 Fax: +1 202 408 5537 [email protected] www.fesdc.org Nr. 2 / 2009 “The Arctic Is Ours”: Canada’s Arctic Policy - Between Sovereignty and Climate Change Petra Dolata-Kreutzkampi • Arctic policy is not new to the political landscape of Canada. However, an increased level of public and international interest has been observed in the past few years. • Canadian Arctic policy is found to span national debate from regional, social, and environmental policy on one side to foreign policy on the other. • Contemporary Canadian Arctic policy can be found to stand squarely under the motto “Arctic Sovereignty” – which lends legal, military, and security policy overtones to the changes currently taking place. This discourse has developed over time and is an important part of Canadian national identity. The discourse also addresses Canada’s most significant economic and security partner: the U.S. • Ottawa’s most recent Arctic policy has been based on non-federal stakeholders. This strengthens the position of the Provinces, which have taken the lead on coordination in the Arctic region. • The Canadian government is emphasizing the cooperative motif of their contemporary Arctic policy. As evidence, one can look at their cooperative relationship with the Arctic-abutting states. In addition, Ottawa supports related international and Arctic Circle institutions. International Developments: The Arctic, Re- shorten the shipping route from Europe to Asia Discovered. by 30-40% in comparison to the current route through the Panama Canal. Nations including Climate change has changed the Canadian China, Japan, and South Korea have therefore Arctic, and above all, it has made it more begun their own ambitious programs to build accessible. Studies predict a sizeable rise in icebreakers, Arctic-ready container ships and temperature and an ice-free Arctic in the next tankers. Additionally, the Arctic holds vast decade, a navigable Northwest Passage could natural resources, including oil, gas, minerals, FOKUS KANADA 2 / 2009 and valuable metals. According to a study by the World War, military considerations led to closer U.S. Geological Survey, the entire Arctic region cooperation between Canada and the United could hold up to a quarter of the world’s States in the Arctic region. This continental undiscovered oil and gas resources. Finally, security cooperation was intensified during the because of melting ice, the ocean currents as Cold War era, in order to be prepared for a well as the water temperature could change – potential Soviet attack through the North Pole meaning that in the future, fish stocks in the (security). Security and sovereignty stand in the Canadian arctic could increase. foreground of Arctic policy; however, the primacy of security during the Cold War meant Along with the economic prospects that that Canadian sovereignty interests have been accompany better accessibility come many de-prioritized in favor of issues of North problems. The Arctic ecosystem is very fragile. American security. Economic interests in the Increased transit volume and exploration Arctic region were sporadic, and never as opportunities could severely disturb the sensitive meaningful as the worries over security and ecological balance. A tanker accident in this sovereignty. Although in the course of the first region would be catastrophic – as tragically oil crisis in the 1970s, oil and gas sources were shown by the example of the Exxon Valdez in discovered in the Canadian East and West 1989. Change in the Arctic region also changes Arctic, oil and gas have been developed the living space and conditions for the commercially only in the West Arctic region indigenous populations. Traditional forms of until very recently. Many of those sources lie survival and community living are threatened. At under the ocean, mostly in the Sverdrup basin - the same time, these changes could mean new until today, these regions have been barely opportunities for economic, social, and political accessible. participation. With the end of the Cold War, military Further challenges can be identified in the realm considerations were increasingly complemented of classical security policy. In the future, it could by environmental and social questions. The be easier for criminals, smugglers, illegal existing security discourse was individualized immigrants or terrorists to reach North American and bound to social and environmental threats. soil. In fact, there are already examples of this. Since many of these threats affected indigenous In summer 2007, a group of Norwegians populations the most, representatives of the Inuit affiliated with the illegal group Hells Angels and First Nations became important political succeeded in infiltrating Canadian territory, stakeholders in the decision making process. undiscovered, by sailing through Cambridge This political participation reached a high point Bay. Only recently, studies have been completed with the successful formation of semi- that deal with potential terrorist attacks on autonomous territories in the Arctic region, and energy production facilities and transport in 1999, Nunavut was founded. infrastructure such as pipelines and tankers. National political themes such as social issues, Canadian Arctic Policy Is Nothing New environmental concerns, and indigenous efforts were integrated into a cohesive Arctic policy in The Canadian government is anxious to react to the 1990s. It was not only the content of these these international developments. However, it policies that had changed, but also the format would be erroneous to assume that Canada has and the participants. Non-state, transnational only recently developed an Arctic policy. Since actors were taking an increasingly important role Canada’s former colonial power, Great Britain, in the political process, and North American ceded the Arctic islands to the young Canada in security cooperation was expanded through 1880, the government has had to re-affirm their multilateral circumpolar control. Indeed, by territorial claims over those of the Arctic 1977, the transnational Inuit Circumpolar neighbors (sovereignty). During the Second Council had been founded. Today, this links 2 FOKUS KANADA 2 / 2009 indigenous groups from Canada, the U.S., the passage as an internal body of water. The Russia, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, U.S. counters that it is an international maritime and Iceland, as well as other indigenous passage. In the 20th century, the Arctic made organizations. Above all, the group is headlines only in cases where the U.S. preoccupied with the effects of climate change undermined Canada’s territorial claims. This has and has divided itself into six working groups changed fundamentally in the past few years. with environmental and social themes. One reason for this is the increasing international interest in the Arctic. An additional international regime that came into power in the 1990s was the United Nations “Law Anxiety over the effects of global climate change of the Sea” Treaty, which Canada signed in and the search for new resources in times of 2003. This contains one of the most important energy shortage and high oil prices has brought regulatory structures for the Arctic. This the Arctic into the eyes of the international international agreement regulates the borders of public. In this case, it is extremely important to the respective territorial waters and the so-called observe the effects of global warming. Melting Exclusive Economic Zone, which lies 200 and breaking icebergs, as well as polar bears – nautical miles from the coast into the ocean, and and their threatened natural habitat – are symbols where natural resources can be used exclusively of global climate change. It is not only the by that coastal nation. The legal language of the United Nations that sees the Arctic as a sort of treaty included a special paragraph on the Arctic, “early warning system” of global warming. The that advises as to the unique role of the Arctic as European Union is also displaying a growing a maritime space. Even more important is the interest in the Arctic, following the conviction stipulation of Article 76, which claims that that Europeans care more and more about the coastal nations can widen their Exclusive environment and climate change. Many also fear Economic Zone if they can prove scientifically for the future relationships between the Arctic that underwater geological formations (like the nations. A race to the North Pole, a power play Lomonosov Ridge at the North Pole) create a for the Arctic, even a new “Cold War” – these natural extension of the continental shelf. All are fears that have been recently discussed. The five Arctic coast nations are searching for ways international public is alarmed and confused, to furnish this evidence, in order to allow whether or not the current institutions – The Law themselves exclusive rights to Arctic raw of the Sea and the Arctic Council – are enough materials. to keep the process on a peaceful and cooperative track. Ottawa’s Arctic policy must The Canadian And International Public Take respond to these international points of view. Notice Arctic Sovereignty: The Arctic Belongs To Although a Canadian Arctic policy is nothing Canada new, it must be stated that in daily political life, this has been a side issue – and remained for The conservative Canadian government, under many years unobserved by the wider public. Prime Minister Harper, is pushing for an Arctic Only twice – in 1969-70 and again in 1985 – did policy that places the threat to Canadian the attention of the public turn North. In both sovereignty in the foreground. He is combining cases, U.S. vessels were plying the Northwest programs to militarize the Arctic along with a Passage, which was claimed by Ottawa as an push for legal claims – and is building up this internal body of water. The public outcry was agenda with a considerable rhetoric that seems to immense, and both times, the government emphasize the threat to Canadian territorial reacted with lawmaking effort meant to back up integrity.